The risks inherent in leaving infants unattended for even short lengths of time are well known. In addition to the harm which infants can cause to themselves upon being left unattended, they can also suffer harm due to such things as "sudden infant death syndrome", "crib death" and numerous other vague maladies which all too often cause death to an infant. While various monitoring devices are well known in the art which attempt to monitor an unattended infant by detecting the infant's screams or cries (such as traditional intercom systems), these devices fail to signal an alert unless the infant audibly signals that he or she is uncomfortable (i.e. by crying).
Quite commonly, unattended infants suffer from maladies which do not result in the infant crying, and hence would not tend to alert the infant's absent parents or supervisors. Sudden infant death syndrome (or SIDS) for example, results in the death of an infant without any noticeable discomfort or pain to the infant. Accordingly, children afflicted with SIDS can simply pass from a sleeping phase into a non-respiratory near-death situation without any notice. The only manner of safeguarding against such a situation would be to directly monitor the respiration of the infant to ensure that said respiration is regular and uninterrupted.
Consequently, even infants under direct supervision are at risk from certain maladies such as SIDS unless their respiratory pattern is directly monitored. For that reason, a device or apparatus is needed in the art which attempts not to detect audible cries or screams from an infant, but rather monitors the respiratory pattern of the infant and provides an alert in response to any observable irregularities thereof. Such a device would be employable and useful for an infant which is unattended (such as in a separate room from his or her parents or keeper) and even for infants which are under supervision but sleeping.
While the traditional prior art units such as audible infant intercom monitors may be suitable for the particular purpose employed, or for general use, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as disclosed hereafter.